[strken]

This is horrifying. Left and right already read different news, different fiction, different philosophy, and different scientific papers. Are they also supposed to read different O'Reilly textbooks?

Granted, Kissinger should be a war criminal, but how does this press the case against him? It just creates another degree of separation in the divergent realities constructed by the two groups.

[colemickens]

Totally agree, we need to find middle ground on Kissinger so as to not offend special snowflake liber... er, wait.

There is only one reality. The rest is politics and self-delusion.

[strken]

Alice doesn't know much about Kissinger, but detests Chomsky for denying the Khmer Rouge. Bob doesn't know much about Chomsky, but detests Kissinger for the bombing campaign. They both live in the same world, they both believe true facts, neither is delusional, but the reality they see is not the same.

If they approached each other from a position of mutual respect over their abilities and PL/SQL knowledge, they would have a chance to fill in the gaps in their knowledge. If they instead publish a series of passive-aggressive textbooks where Bob puts Kissinger in a table of war criminals while Alice places Noam Chomsky in a user's table next to David Duke, they'll hate each other and have no chance to fill in the gaps.